Kindles are convenient, the E-ink tech looks pretty good, books cost less usually. But you’re stuck with the Amazon monopoly. You don’t have books filling up bookshelves, which can be good and bad.
I don't like that you can't loan things to people. Part of the reason I own my books is so that I can hand it to another person and go "you should read this!"
my brother in law - classic peter pan. Defers to and dependent on others for important decisions. Three times married, twice separated and back together with the current one. Current wife is very controlling. She won't let him work with women; he won't talk on the phone when she's around, only text; won't let him associate with family including when his elderly mom was in a car accident. Estranged from his adult kids. When I met him he was a lively fun happy guy. We still love him (and welcomed him both times he separated from #3) but so hard to stay connected.
Overly pious, and very in-your-face about it, but it's mostly for show rather than actual belief. Lives in Canada, but still feels the need to tell my father his opinion American politics, which is usually very uninformed because he has no context and takes his cues from conservative new sources without checking anything. Incompetent about everyday things to the point that I often wonder how he functions in everyday life (calls my dad to talk him through things like how to book a plane ticket or install iTunes). So socially insensitive that I marvel that he hasn't been punched in the face yet. And, he definitely doesn't think he's doing anything wrong or needs any improvement, so there's no way he'll ever change.
My cousin who interned in Washington for Devin Nunes and who graduated early from UCLA so she could move back to DC to work for the Heritage Foundation. She's a true believer. 🤮
Ever since she and my father divorced, she has been on an endless cycle of seeing horrific and grotesque old white men. And each one has been worse and worse.
The latest one (who pretty much ruined much of my wedding), has turned out to be physically and verbally abusive towards my mom. He's also extremely racist and a hitler/drumpf partisan. Twice now my mom has made attempts to get out of that situation, and each time she has convinced herself to go back and that this time around, he has truly changed.
Now, she does very subtle insinuations to try to get me to accept him, despite my making clear to her that both my wife and I want absolutely nothing to do with him.
she's trapped in an abusive relationship. It sounds like she's looking to you for support. I hope she finds a way to escape. (pardon in advance for my overstepping)
Sounds like a terrible situation for all involved but more do for your mom. I hope she can find help and get out of that situation as soon and safely possible
Sadly, my best friend of many years. He went to Berkeley, we never shared any classes, I met him where we both worked, an rental yard that was stocked with students working their way through college. He was always more conservative than I, but I used to enjoy political jousting with him. But he changed after 9/11, and became more of a hard core conservative (not on social issues) and was all for the invasion of Iraq: "things are going well" - "We'll find those WMDs" - we had a bit of a falling out then, because I wasn't prepared to put with this bullshit, and factually he was wrong.
But that's not character, just mistaken beliefs. But since Obama's election, he seemed to parrot Fox News nonsense, it became much more difficult to have any meaningful conversation with him that involved current events. I know he didn't vote for Trump, and clearly thought him to be a moron, but the break came about with separation of migrant families, and locking up children. This is a clearly racist policy, and I can't forgive him for embracing it.
Maybe my own calculus - he's a fucking MBA guy, successful enough, not some laid-off factory worker who blames immigrants "for stealing his job" - I don't get it. Free trader, typical Republican old-school positions. He's blind to what that policy means, and I'm sad.
I think it's harder when you know someone is intelligent and you want them to use their brains to actually analyze the situation. I'm not saying that they have to come to share the same liberal POV I may have (I know plenty of extremely smart conservatives) but I do find it frustrating when they refuse to acknowledge the consequences of certain policies.
Yeah, I feel the same way, it's really frustrating; also a climate change denier - although I think that part was finally falling to the obvious evidence.
Ugh, supporting the child separation policies would be an absolute red line in the sand for me. That's something even most Republicans couldn't support.
Honestly, I have no patience for anyone who is remotely pro-Trump, especially at this point. Conservative or not, if you support this shit, you're either a bad person, a dumb/ignorant person, or you're brainwashed. It's a character flaw. If actual Republican operatives are willing to admit this is fucked up and can't be supported, if current and former Republican elected officials like Dent and Kasich can support Biden, if even my arch-libertarian right wing cousin can recognize that things are fucked up... then you don't deserve sympathy and understanding for your terrible politics.
I am in complete agreement, though I'm sure all of you guys knew that about me from even before orange hitler was "elected."
I can give a pass to those who voted for orange hitler last time and realize now that it was a mistake. I honestly believe that those who vote for him this time around need to have their citizenship revoked and thrown in jail.
My wife, who is by no means a drumpf supporter, doesn't like either party. She agrees with me though that despite her opinion about the Democrats, they are far, far better than the alternative. (She was also very much impressed by the speech last night.)
Biden's speech last night was a legitimately good speech. No qualifiers. It wasn't a good speech "for Biden", or a good speech "for a guy his age", or "for a guy with a speech impediment", it was simply a quality speech, well-delivered, period. And it's his convention, so I'm sure this was the hope, but it was actually the best speech of the convention IMO. Better than both the Obamas, better than Kamala, better than Bernie, better than my girl Liz... all of those were good speeches, but Joe's performance lived up to him being the headliner. It wasn't quite as good as Obama's best, but it was well-written and Joe delivered it smoothly and passionately.
This was a perspective I hadn't thought about before (granted, I don't watch many videos, so I really don't have an impression of what people sound like)
".@JoeBiden still stutters and word substitutes when he has a block during speeches. It may look like he's "forgetful" but he's just having a block, which has nothing to do with intellect. He's had to work so hard to improve his stutter to become a public figure. He's amazing!"
I was really tight with 4 other guys from my freshman dorm all through college. Then one of them got a jump start on being a Trumpalo, the penultimate time I saw him was in like 2003 at an SC - UW game when he got mad at me for being skeptical that undocumented immigrants might be the cause of rolling brownouts. His wife, who is an absolute sweetheart, still makes sure that we trade Christmas cards but I haven’t spoken to him in probably 15 years.
I should add that because I have a very short list of close friends it really takes something to be dropped, as opposed to the more typical “passage of time and change of life circumstances.”
my kids wore them. believe my mom purchased the matching train engineer hat to go with the striped ones.
Overalls were my chem lab uniform. One day I pulled them out of the dryer and I found holes in them from something I dropped on them in lab. I may still have them in the "college box".
I'm in the middle of a couple of series right now:
Network Effect by Martha Wells (I love the robot's narrative voice! Highly recommend this series)
Stormsong by C.L. Polk (just started but I have high hopes because the first book was better than expected)
The Wishsong of Shannara by Terry Brooks (finally getting around to finishing this trilogy I'd started in high school)
The Crow Rider by Kalyn Josephson (they ride giant crows)
A Treacherous curse by Deanna Raybourn (overly spunky Victorian lepidopterist who investigates stuff)
The Rose Society by Marie Lu (annoying YA that I just need to get through so I can rant about it to my SIL)
A Lady of True Distinction by Grace Burrowes (Regency romance novel with more focus on manners than bodice ripping)
I'm also listening to Consider the Fork by Bee Wilson (a history of culinary implements which is filled with some surprisingly interesting facts), The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin (I read it a few months ago, but the NY accents in the audiobook make it better), and Russian Fairy Tales by William Ralston (because I don't know that folklore as well as I'd like)
Then, there's a bunch of stuff for various book clubs:
Senlin Ascends by Joseph Bancroft (Fantasy Book Club; I'm about a chapter in and the meeting is on Sunday)
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein (Sci Fi Book Club; we're back to reading classics this month)
She Walks in Shadows (Horror Book Club; Lovecraft fanfic by female writers, basically)
Ex Heroes by Peter Clines (Geek Girls Book Club; it's zombies and superheroes in a dystopian LA and it's such a good book)
Circe by Madeline Miller (Ladies Fantasy Book Club; another re-read for me, but this book is so beautifully written that I'm happy for the chance)
Snow Blind by Ollie Masters (Graphic Novel Book Club)
When these were physical books, I'd usually have them stashed in various places and read whatever's closest. Like, there'd be one in my purse and one by my bed and one downstairs by the sofa and one in my bathroom etc.
I set a quarantine limit on myself so I wouldn't just be reading all the time: no more than one book a day.
That way I still have somewhat of a life during the pandemic and hang out with people and decorate cakes and go to my other clubs and orgs and do crafts and pub quizzes and volunteer and stuff.
I am reading Self Help by Edward Docx, a novel about twins who live in London (boy) and NY (girl), and whose Russian mother has just died in St Petersburg. I'm about 80 pages in and not sure where it's headed but I'm enjoying it so far.
I need to add more race-conscious fiction to my list anyway. The non-fiction ones I've been reading have just made me more frustrated because they don't offer enough solutions.
Just bought but haven't started Make Russia Great Again by Christopher Buckley. It's a satire of the Trump administration. Seems a little redundant but should be fun.
Sometimes I wish the rest of the motorcycle community could disown most of the idiots who do so much to ruin the reputation of motorcyclists. Most of them are Harley people I feel like.
Nope, not a lot of sportbikes or dual sport/ADV bikes, or even many scrambler/cafe racer style bikes. My perception is that Sturgis is almost exclusively big cruisers and touring bikes.
Kindle vs paper
paper; I need the tactile-ness. tried kindle, kept falling asleep. (Mr CG likes Audible.)
Paper most of the time, Kindle for library books.
Lately because of the pandemic or just in general?
Paper, always.
Wouldn't have expected anything else from you :)
Now if you were Oui Oui, you'd say something like: "What, are you too good for clay tablets?"
Clay tablets must have been a huge step up from cave walls, right?
Essentially the Top Gear meme
Ebooks are brilliant, but I LIKE paper
Kindles are convenient, the E-ink tech looks pretty good, books cost less usually. But you’re stuck with the Amazon monopoly. You don’t have books filling up bookshelves, which can be good and bad.
I don't like that you can't loan things to people. Part of the reason I own my books is so that I can hand it to another person and go "you should read this!"
There’s a limited ability to loan Some books, but it’s not that easy to use and of course the other person has to be willing to read on kindle.
You can load PDFs onto the Kindle.
Also, I've never used them, but I think there are sites/apps that'll convert epub to mobi.
Paper in general, but especially for anything I want to savor and really enjoy.
Ebooks for convenience.
Cantaloupe
Terrible jokes I made up just now about a hypothetical pair of romantically involved melons:
Q: Why did the melon couple have such a big wedding?
A: Because they cantaloupe.
Q: Why is the melon husband always so busy?
A: Because of his honeydew list.
Q: Why is the melon couple's dog so sad?
A: It's a melon-collie.
you're right. Those are terrible
At least I'm self-aware.
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/DeterminedChiefDuiker-mobile.mp4
You are not worthy, you have no offspring to justify these jokes.
Can't do it. Other than watermelon, I don't like melons
Biddy-biddy-bop
https://youtu.be/JwBjhBL9G6U
funky, funky
Man, I loved the smooth rap of that era.
Cantaloop was a legit great song. I have it on several playlists and it always makes me happy.
I do like them and Honeydews. To me they're unedible when they're not ripe. The orange flesh honeydews are good.
Who in your family or (former) circle of friends is the biggest lost-cause (excluding any former Mike Men)?
my brother in law - classic peter pan. Defers to and dependent on others for important decisions. Three times married, twice separated and back together with the current one. Current wife is very controlling. She won't let him work with women; he won't talk on the phone when she's around, only text; won't let him associate with family including when his elderly mom was in a car accident. Estranged from his adult kids. When I met him he was a lively fun happy guy. We still love him (and welcomed him both times he separated from #3) but so hard to stay connected.
My godfather (Dad's middle brother).
Overly pious, and very in-your-face about it, but it's mostly for show rather than actual belief. Lives in Canada, but still feels the need to tell my father his opinion American politics, which is usually very uninformed because he has no context and takes his cues from conservative new sources without checking anything. Incompetent about everyday things to the point that I often wonder how he functions in everyday life (calls my dad to talk him through things like how to book a plane ticket or install iTunes). So socially insensitive that I marvel that he hasn't been punched in the face yet. And, he definitely doesn't think he's doing anything wrong or needs any improvement, so there's no way he'll ever change.
My cousin who interned in Washington for Devin Nunes and who graduated early from UCLA so she could move back to DC to work for the Heritage Foundation. She's a true believer. 🤮
so... family gatherings much? sorry to hear.
Is she from Fresno/Central Valley? She sounds like a lost soul.
She is indeed! And her dad (my first cousin) is from the IE.
Gross
🤮 what does this mean?
The emoji? It's a puking emoji.
My mother is getting close to that status.
Ever since she and my father divorced, she has been on an endless cycle of seeing horrific and grotesque old white men. And each one has been worse and worse.
The latest one (who pretty much ruined much of my wedding), has turned out to be physically and verbally abusive towards my mom. He's also extremely racist and a hitler/drumpf partisan. Twice now my mom has made attempts to get out of that situation, and each time she has convinced herself to go back and that this time around, he has truly changed.
Now, she does very subtle insinuations to try to get me to accept him, despite my making clear to her that both my wife and I want absolutely nothing to do with him.
she's trapped in an abusive relationship. It sounds like she's looking to you for support. I hope she finds a way to escape. (pardon in advance for my overstepping)
Sounds like a terrible situation for all involved but more do for your mom. I hope she can find help and get out of that situation as soon and safely possible
That sounds like an awful situation, I'm sorry you and your mom are going through that.
Poor thing!
Ugh...that sounds like a horrible situation all around. Must've taken all your will power not to hit the guy for ruining much of the wedding.
Sadly, my best friend of many years. He went to Berkeley, we never shared any classes, I met him where we both worked, an rental yard that was stocked with students working their way through college. He was always more conservative than I, but I used to enjoy political jousting with him. But he changed after 9/11, and became more of a hard core conservative (not on social issues) and was all for the invasion of Iraq: "things are going well" - "We'll find those WMDs" - we had a bit of a falling out then, because I wasn't prepared to put with this bullshit, and factually he was wrong.
But that's not character, just mistaken beliefs. But since Obama's election, he seemed to parrot Fox News nonsense, it became much more difficult to have any meaningful conversation with him that involved current events. I know he didn't vote for Trump, and clearly thought him to be a moron, but the break came about with separation of migrant families, and locking up children. This is a clearly racist policy, and I can't forgive him for embracing it.
Maybe my own calculus - he's a fucking MBA guy, successful enough, not some laid-off factory worker who blames immigrants "for stealing his job" - I don't get it. Free trader, typical Republican old-school positions. He's blind to what that policy means, and I'm sad.
drinking buddy of Stephen Miller, is he?
I think it's harder when you know someone is intelligent and you want them to use their brains to actually analyze the situation. I'm not saying that they have to come to share the same liberal POV I may have (I know plenty of extremely smart conservatives) but I do find it frustrating when they refuse to acknowledge the consequences of certain policies.
Yeah, I feel the same way, it's really frustrating; also a climate change denier - although I think that part was finally falling to the obvious evidence.
Ugh, supporting the child separation policies would be an absolute red line in the sand for me. That's something even most Republicans couldn't support.
Oh they supported it. That’s why it was able to happen and continued to happen.
At least not publicly.
(excluding any former Mike Men)
welp 🤷♂️
Honestly, I have no patience for anyone who is remotely pro-Trump, especially at this point. Conservative or not, if you support this shit, you're either a bad person, a dumb/ignorant person, or you're brainwashed. It's a character flaw. If actual Republican operatives are willing to admit this is fucked up and can't be supported, if current and former Republican elected officials like Dent and Kasich can support Biden, if even my arch-libertarian right wing cousin can recognize that things are fucked up... then you don't deserve sympathy and understanding for your terrible politics.
I am in complete agreement, though I'm sure all of you guys knew that about me from even before orange hitler was "elected."
I can give a pass to those who voted for orange hitler last time and realize now that it was a mistake. I honestly believe that those who vote for him this time around need to have their citizenship revoked and thrown in jail.
My wife, who is by no means a drumpf supporter, doesn't like either party. She agrees with me though that despite her opinion about the Democrats, they are far, far better than the alternative. (She was also very much impressed by the speech last night.)
Biden's speech last night was a legitimately good speech. No qualifiers. It wasn't a good speech "for Biden", or a good speech "for a guy his age", or "for a guy with a speech impediment", it was simply a quality speech, well-delivered, period. And it's his convention, so I'm sure this was the hope, but it was actually the best speech of the convention IMO. Better than both the Obamas, better than Kamala, better than Bernie, better than my girl Liz... all of those were good speeches, but Joe's performance lived up to him being the headliner. It wasn't quite as good as Obama's best, but it was well-written and Joe delivered it smoothly and passionately.
This was a perspective I hadn't thought about before (granted, I don't watch many videos, so I really don't have an impression of what people sound like)
https://twitter.com/Cleavon_MD/status/1296700963604971520?s=20
".@JoeBiden still stutters and word substitutes when he has a block during speeches. It may look like he's "forgetful" but he's just having a block, which has nothing to do with intellect. He's had to work so hard to improve his stutter to become a public figure. He's amazing!"
I agree with all this. I thought his speech last night was powerful, inspirational, and hopeful.
I found it on par with the best of Clinton or Obama speeches of their respective careers.
My wife uttered an emphatic "THANK YOU" when Biden mentioned his detailed plan for fighting the pandemic.
yikes
I was really tight with 4 other guys from my freshman dorm all through college. Then one of them got a jump start on being a Trumpalo, the penultimate time I saw him was in like 2003 at an SC - UW game when he got mad at me for being skeptical that undocumented immigrants might be the cause of rolling brownouts. His wife, who is an absolute sweetheart, still makes sure that we trade Christmas cards but I haven’t spoken to him in probably 15 years.
That is ridiculous, he must be a big QAnon supporter and believer if he believed undocumented immigrants were causing brownouts.
I should add that because I have a very short list of close friends it really takes something to be dropped, as opposed to the more typical “passage of time and change of life circumstances.”
my sister
:(
Overalls
Love them when they're baggy!
I don't understand the recent skinny leg overalls.
I don't understand skinny jeans/pants. I mean how comfortable can they be? Try doing a lunge in them.
Do you lunge a lot? 🤔
no, but even things like running up 2 steps at a time wouldn't be possible in skinny jeans I wouldn't think.
Or even sitting down
As with most parents, we used to get OshKosh B'Gosh overalls for the kids. I liked the pinstripes train engineer ones.
my kids wore them. believe my mom purchased the matching train engineer hat to go with the striped ones.
Overalls were my chem lab uniform. One day I pulled them out of the dryer and I found holes in them from something I dropped on them in lab. I may still have them in the "college box".
Both of my children wore them.
Every child should have the experience of one of the variants on those at some point! They are great.
Got those for my son.
Waddya reading now?
I'm in the middle of a couple of series right now:
Network Effect by Martha Wells (I love the robot's narrative voice! Highly recommend this series)
Stormsong by C.L. Polk (just started but I have high hopes because the first book was better than expected)
The Wishsong of Shannara by Terry Brooks (finally getting around to finishing this trilogy I'd started in high school)
The Crow Rider by Kalyn Josephson (they ride giant crows)
A Treacherous curse by Deanna Raybourn (overly spunky Victorian lepidopterist who investigates stuff)
The Rose Society by Marie Lu (annoying YA that I just need to get through so I can rant about it to my SIL)
A Lady of True Distinction by Grace Burrowes (Regency romance novel with more focus on manners than bodice ripping)
I'm also listening to Consider the Fork by Bee Wilson (a history of culinary implements which is filled with some surprisingly interesting facts), The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin (I read it a few months ago, but the NY accents in the audiobook make it better), and Russian Fairy Tales by William Ralston (because I don't know that folklore as well as I'd like)
Then, there's a bunch of stuff for various book clubs:
Senlin Ascends by Joseph Bancroft (Fantasy Book Club; I'm about a chapter in and the meeting is on Sunday)
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein (Sci Fi Book Club; we're back to reading classics this month)
She Walks in Shadows (Horror Book Club; Lovecraft fanfic by female writers, basically)
Ex Heroes by Peter Clines (Geek Girls Book Club; it's zombies and superheroes in a dystopian LA and it's such a good book)
Circe by Madeline Miller (Ladies Fantasy Book Club; another re-read for me, but this book is so beautifully written that I'm happy for the chance)
Snow Blind by Ollie Masters (Graphic Novel Book Club)
that is a lot to keep track of at once. i can manage about 2 at a time, maybe 3 at most.
When these were physical books, I'd usually have them stashed in various places and read whatever's closest. Like, there'd be one in my purse and one by my bed and one downstairs by the sofa and one in my bathroom etc.
Whoa, do you find time to do anything besides read books?
My Sunday mornings are pretty much entirely taken up by book clubs though.
I set a quarantine limit on myself so I wouldn't just be reading all the time: no more than one book a day.
That way I still have somewhat of a life during the pandemic and hang out with people and decorate cakes and go to my other clubs and orgs and do crafts and pub quizzes and volunteer and stuff.
hahahaha
The Wishsong of Shannara by Terry Brooks (finally getting around to finishing this trilogy I'd started in high school)
Must be great!
It was at the time! Book 3 is a bit of a disappointment, but I just need to check it off the list
I am reading Self Help by Edward Docx, a novel about twins who live in London (boy) and NY (girl), and whose Russian mother has just died in St Petersburg. I'm about 80 pages in and not sure where it's headed but I'm enjoying it so far.
I love twins! Let me know if it's worth reading
I highly recommend The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, about lightskinned black twins in the 60s, and one decides to pass as white.
Will do! Thanks.
I need to add more race-conscious fiction to my list anyway. The non-fiction ones I've been reading have just made me more frustrated because they don't offer enough solutions.
Just DIY stuff: "How to Brew" on brewing beer at home and a book with recipes that clone commercial beer for home use.
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
That's a fun book!
Yes, I needed some light reading!
Almost done with "Say Nothing" a history of the Troubles in N. Ireland. Really good read, and something of an indictment of Garry Adams.
https://twitter.com/wallaceme/status/940485140102426624?s=21
It's my favorite ever tweet.
OMG
Just bought but haven't started Make Russia Great Again by Christopher Buckley. It's a satire of the Trump administration. Seems a little redundant but should be fun.
been sort of lazy about reading .. so i am still reading:
i capture the castle - about to give up despite the good reviews
old drift - semi-fictional history of Zambia written by a Cal English prof
my goal is to try to finish them off by the end of the month and move on to other stuff
LaVar Burton
He is rumored to be returning as Geordi in season 2 of Picard. There are additional rumors that his character will have a large role.
was there any recent news about him?
i thought he was great on TNG. one of my favorite scene w/ him is in the Qpid episode where they are all acting out some Robin Hood scenario.
Geordi is playing the mandolin badly. Worf grabs it, bashes it, and says "sorry".
As far as I know he's mostly doing his podcast, LeVar Burton Reads.
Sounds like the Animal House scene with John Belushi.
Cool visor.
Covid-19
Sturgis motorcycle rally results in new cases! Surprise!
Gosh, if only that wasn't completely predictable
Sometimes I wish the rest of the motorcycle community could disown most of the idiots who do so much to ruin the reputation of motorcyclists. Most of them are Harley people I feel like.
I'm imagine you don't see guys riding crotch rockets at Sturgis.
Nope, not a lot of sportbikes or dual sport/ADV bikes, or even many scrambler/cafe racer style bikes. My perception is that Sturgis is almost exclusively big cruisers and touring bikes.
DC Hijinx
So... what kind of wacky business are you up to, DC?